Go Away Gustov!

About the first I heard of the storm on Tuesday evening. Two days before H is leaving for Cancun (under the S on 2pm Saturday). Not looking good...

By Wednesday afternoon, things are looking slightly better for H's trip, but Oh, poor Louisiana!

By the time H boards his plane, it looks like a gamble on Cancun. I told him just to go anyway & enjoy it, even if the weather turns crappy.

Things are looking better for him by Friday night, especially since he's already there & drinking margaritas!

By late Friday night, things look ever better for H, but what about me and MY trip?!?!

I'm supposed to fly home from Denver Tuesday morning & then fly out to Dallas that afternoon for work, which is supposed to be outside, East of Dallas on Wednesday. Grrr.....

I will be watching this thing closely while in Colorado, and crossing my fingers they don't start cancelling flights into Houston until Wednesday.

GOOD NEWS OF THE DAY: I'll be hiking in Garden of the Gods in a few hours!

Girls Weekend

Bright & early tomorrow morning, I'm headed to Denver to meet up with my best friend Stephanie for Labor Day weekend. We're headed to a little town called Manitou Springs, just outside of Colorado Springs, for one last hoorah of the summer.

I'm super excited to visit Garden of the Gods National Park. It looks gorgeous from the photos I've seen & I can't wait to check it out with my camera.

Also right in the area is Pike's Peak park. I'm thinking we'll try to spend one day in each park, hiking, seeing waterfalls, burning some calories, looking for some wildlife & having fun.

We've got nothing planned yet, but I hope we'll get to see a few of these places in Pike's Peak park.

We're staying at the Red Crags Bed & Breakfast, where I hope to enjoy their fine looking porches while sipping on glasses of wine & catching up on all our girl chat.

GOOD NEWS OF THE DAY: Be back soon with lots of photos!

Or Not...

I will be taking a blogging break from *this* blog, but I've decided it's time to re-start my other blog, Reflecting the Good News, about my faith travels. Feel free to add it to your feed reader for some semi-weekly insights & inspiration.

Also, this is a picture of hurricane Gustov that popped up over night. It could be a very dangerous category 5 storm by the time it makes it into the Gulf of Mexico.

This is my problem.

GOOD NEWS OF THE DAY: I'll be in Colorado Saturday-Tuesday. I'll be back on Friday with a blog preview.

Blogging Break

I'm probably going to take this week off from blogging as a much needed rest. We've been busy relaxing (is that an oxymoron?) in anticipation of our VERY busy upcoming September & October. We ate some tasty steaks with my parents Saturday night & went to a Pink Party Breast Cancer Fundraiser at a wine bar downtown yesterday, but I just wasn't in the mood to take pictures. I'm going out with one of my good friends for dinner tonight & taking Gram for a doctor's visit tomorrow. I also started volunteering again with the kids on Sunday mornings, and I'm re-starting my Wednesday evening classes at church this week too.

H left out of town this morning for a VERY BIG meeting in Tennessee. I already miss him, but he'll be home tomorrow night. We're both headed out of town for Labor Day weekend, and I'll probably have a post about that before I jet to Colorado. Then my photography workshop in Banff is coming up in just a few short weeks. H has a guys baseball weekend in New York & Boston in September. October is H's crazy-busy month at work where I won't see him for days, so we're trying to slow down just a bit before we get swamped.

Be back soon!

GOOD NEWS OF THE DAY: I'm SOOOO excited for H today. He's been working on getting this account & building their business for a few years, and this would be a phenomenal opportunity for us.

Dogs in the Water

It's pretty rare to get both dogs in the same picture- Ruby is in zoom mode most of the time & Zoe is often by my side.

Ruby runs back & forth around the lake, occasionally wading in with other dogs to play.

All of the owners sit around, trying to find shade & trying to stay dry & clean from all the dog shaking going on.

Zoe usually loves tennis balls & I tried very hard to coax her into getting this one, even offering treats. I finally gave up and threw some treats in the water, which Ruby promptly retrieved.

This dog is in constant motion...

Such a pretty girl!

I have no idea what this was about, but you can see Zoe snarling. Ruby wants to play SO bad, but Zoe just isn't interested.

If either of us made a move, the dogs noticed us standing up or shifting around. I think they were afraid we'd leave them.

The real reason Zoe won't swim when Ruby is around is because Ruby tries to swim on top of her all the time. I really don't blame Zoe one bit, but Tony was determined to get Zoe in the water.

She's light enough to toss a few feet & the water is deep.

In she goes!

With Ruby right behind her into the water.

And then Ruby right on top of her in the water.

Ruby doesn't do this to other dogs swimming, so I can only assume she wants to play with Zoe.

Zoe tries to make a quick escape & get out ASAP.

Zoe is not amused.....

GOOD NEWS OF THE DAY: I start my volunteering at church again today, watching the 4 year olds.

Dogs at the Park

Last Saturday, Zoe & I had another doggie play-date with Ruby & Tony at the dog park.

It was super hot & extra humid, even before 10AM, so there were lots of dogs in the milk bone pond.

I swear Ruby runs with a smile on her face.

Zoe had an ear disruption. You can still see her scar from her surgery in February pretty well on her back leg. I think it's healed about as good as it's going to get, so she'll have a nice permanent, highly visible, scar.

It doesn't take long for Ruby's tongue to be full out.

Ruby would run and play with all the other dogs, occasionally finding one to play chase with & who would help her use up some of her energy.

This was pretty much Ruby about 99% of the time. Where is Zoe you ask? She just hangs out with the us & stands next to me looking like she's ready to go home & wondering why all these crazy dogs are running around.

This pup was having a grand old time. :)

I just loved this one of Ruby's expression as this dog was playing a bit more aggressively with her. Coming up tomorrow- dogs in the water.

GOOD NEWS OF THE DAY: I'll be in Colorado, hiking & drinking, with my best friend in a week.

Construction Continues

Things are humming right along since my last construction update in early May. This is the new BBQ joint, that I will likely have to smell every night once they get cooking.

It's taking them forever on this hotel- they started tearing down the trees last October. They have almost finished bricking the outside, and I'm sure fully finishing the inside will take several more months.

Next to the BBQ restaurant and new hotel, some office space looking buildings have literally popped up over night. Although I could see they were clearing more land, I was hoping it wouldn't' be something so obnoxious. The giant crane that is laying in front of the building has been upright & busy working the last week.

With tilt wall construction, they pour the concrete wall & then stand it up in place. You can make a lot of ugly buildings really quickly this way. :(

Also, just around the corner, a MASSIVE apartment complex is being built.

Just to give you an idea, below are a before & after aerial shot from Google Earth.

The pink spray paint is the new building behind my house. The 3 blue dots are the BBQ restaurant, hotel & office space. The red dot is now complete & is a medical building. The large green dot has been finished for a while, and is a Target, and they have added restaurants and shops on the main road at the green dot. The pink dot has been filled in with more retail space, and the orange blob is the area of the new apartment complex. I've highlighted the jogging path that Zoe & I take around the neighborhood parks several times a week.

GOOD NEWS OF THE DAY: Going to attempt to have an other picnic at the jazz concert tonight at Miller Outdoor theatre. Hopefully no rain this time.

Organized

Thanks for all the super kind comments on My Finished Office. I'm really loving it, but the best part is that I'm now ORGANIZED! Everything has a place and a place for everything. I've got some nifty file cabinets now for all my statements.

As much as H hates putting any holes in the walls, I had to convince him that I needed some hooks to hold my camera bag & gym bag.

For the first time in my life, my computer, with all its accessories, is finally marginally neat & straightened out. I haven't actually got my second hard drive to work yet, but I haven't ran out of room on my first one either.

Even my closet is organized now! You may not be able to tell, but I promise it is more organized than before. All my records & old photos. My grab-n-go suitcase for work and all my gift supplies.

I even managed to whittle my book collection down to one small bookshelf, and I hid a few in the pink & blue totes on the shelf too. Now that I'm all organized, I have no excuse for my room to be messy anymore.

GOOD NEWS OF THE DAY: A 5th day of rain must be good for the garden.